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Assorted links
1. What are the best and worst companies for customer service?
2. Against classical music ringtones; I usually try to pass along links of surprise and substance, but this is instead simply a point worth noting.
3. Jason Kottke does his Best Links of 2006
Posted by Tyler Cowen on January 3, 2007 at 01:45 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
I wish we were assaulted by less music in general, but I have a hard time figuring out how classical music ringtones are any more objectionable than pop ringtones, broadway ringtones, etc.
Posted by: jp at Jan 3, 2007 2:02:37 PM
I wish we were assaulted by less music in general,
Agreed, 100%. And the music we are too often assaulted with is awful. Much of it drives me away. Why do stores, restaurants, etc., think it helps their business to give customers a headache?
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov at Jan 3, 2007 2:15:34 PM
I found this comment from the customer service article rather surprising.
"The complaints about Vonage involve the company’s poor customer service and technical support, and it’s causing people to drop the service. Reputation matters and Vonage needs to step up and fix its problems. One big issue may be that there is no regulating body in the Internet phone service, so Vonage doesn’t have any incentive to work on its customer service problems."
The threat of losing customers and going out of business isn't incentive enough to fix its customer service problems?
Posted by: pj at Jan 3, 2007 2:55:34 PM
Whenever I hear a ring tone, I feel so embarrassed for the person. A classical-music one is a worse simply because inanity becomes worse when added to pretension. If it's a teenager, then it's not hard to cut them some slack, but with a grown up, it's almost impossible.
Actually, I did hear a great ring tone once. It was the melody from Salt Peanuts, the old bebop goof. Of course, the guy had to buy a programmable phone and do it himself.
Posted by: James at Jan 3, 2007 3:11:49 PM
The purpose of a ring tone is to distinguish my phone from someone else's. So when I hear Bach's organ fugue, I know that it's my phone and not someone else's.
I don't see what the big deal is.
Posted by: Half Sigma at Jan 3, 2007 3:27:48 PM
His deafness will soon make it impossible for him to hear music at all.
I just feel the need to correct this popular myth: until late in his life, Beethoven was not functionally deaf.
Posted by: Gyan at Jan 3, 2007 3:30:44 PM
I recently heard about an interesting new service to make customer service reps more accountable:
www.321calllog.com
This service allows you to automatically record, authenticate, and notarize telephone and email conversations you have with customer service representatives. It announces every 3 mins or so that the call is being recorded. This type of service gives consumers a systematic way to make customer service reps accountable (better than just asking for their name,etc.). I'm curious to see if it takes off.
Posted by: sanagol at Jan 3, 2007 4:42:51 PM
The purpose of a ring tone is to distinguish my phone from someone else's. So when I hear Bach's organ fugue, I know that it's my phone and not someone else's.
I don't see what the big deal is.
Some people (myself included) don't like a lot of noise, especially non-white noise. To us, it's as annoying as second-hand smoke, gum on the sidewalk, etc.
If you keep your device on your person and set it to vibrate, you'll never be in doubt about whether a call is for you.
Posted by: jp at Jan 3, 2007 5:32:43 PM
I imagine poor Beethoven is rolling in his grave at the thought that people might be listening to him music simple because they like how it sounds! Rather than appreciating it's subtle nuances like the truly refined person, say, the author of that article!
Am I the only one who finds such eletism distasteful? The whole article could have been a reflection marvelling how the music written by one long dead was so powerful that it can be enjoyed by another who has no comprehension of it's significance.
Posted by: pawnking at Jan 3, 2007 5:34:40 PM
Dude, Dell has the worst customer service and it's not even a close call.
My next computer will not be a Dell for this reason.
I wonder if someone paid this poller a backhander to keep it out of
the top ten.
Posted by: Bill Stepp at Jan 3, 2007 6:24:23 PM
Bill -- What are you talking about? Dell is listed as number 1 for the worst customer service.
Posted by: jp at Jan 3, 2007 6:49:30 PM
Um, what?
A pretentious, drawn out "essay" that takes seven hundred words (the last 30 requiring a second page click for no reason other than to get more ad views) to say nothing but, "Beethoven wouldn't have liked being on these losers' ringtones" is a "point worth noting" now?
No, it isn't.
Posted by: Person at Jan 3, 2007 8:20:58 PM
The article on ring tones says little about people who knowingly or unknowingly choose classical music for a ring tone. It does, however, speak volumes about pretentious middle age twits who think themselves better than the 'unwashed masses'.
Posted by: T at Jan 4, 2007 4:29:58 AM
jp-Yes, I misread the titles. Looking for Dell in the list,
I thought the Hall of Fame were the ten worst
and the Hall of Shame (where Dell was listed first) were (dis)honorable
mentions.
Posted by: Bill Stepp at Jan 4, 2007 9:26:41 AM
I'm with Half Sigma on this one. Mellow out folks. I personally don't have a special ring tone, but I certainly don't look down my nose on those that do. If it's simply noise and music in general that you don't like, you might consider moving out to the countryside or staying indoors. I don't think it is something that's going to go away.
If you keep your device on your person and set it to vibrate, you'll never be in doubt about whether a call is for you.
Not everyone can keep a phone on them. Most women keep it in their purse or handbag.
Posted by: dsk at Jan 4, 2007 9:52:29 AM
The bit on Beethoven reminds me of this video about Pachelbel's canon in D.
http://tinyurl.com/y8msnz
Posted by: David at Jan 4, 2007 3:41:02 PM
Honestly, old video game music (think Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis at latest) is really best suited to cell phone ringers. I've got a great version of the old Super Mario Bros. theme.
My default ringer is the national anthem of Uraguay, for no reason at all realy.
Posted by: David at Jan 4, 2007 3:43:20 PM
i have to agree with what the guy said above. dells customer service is very poor. and i agree, the super mario theme is by far the best ringtone ever.. for any phone!
Posted by: John at Jan 6, 2007 12:02:08 AM
